Developing and Assessing an Environmental Science-Based Education Module to Support the Nature of Science and...

Area of Science:

• Science Education
• Scientific Literacy
• Environmental Monitoring

Background:

• Increasing need for scientific method understanding in evolving careers.
• Lack of common instructional tools and assessments in science literacy courses at Wesley College.
• Wesley College is a minority-serving liberal arts institution in Dover, Delaware.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and assess a classroom-ready educational module for scientific literacy.
• To evaluate the module's effectiveness and consistency across different course sections.
• To align the module with Next Generation Science Standards.

Main Methods:

• Partnership with ANP Technologies to create an educational module.
• Module utilizes an Engage, Explore, Explain, Evaluate sequence.
• Pilot study in Spring 2019 with post-test assessment.

Main Results:

• No significant differences in mean post-test scores between sections.
• Students achieved proficiency on 7 out of 12 questions.
• Confirmed module consistency and effectiveness in promoting scientific literacy.

Conclusions:

• The developed module is effective for teaching scientific literacy to non-science majors.
• The module provides a consistent learning experience across diverse student groups.
• This tool can be valuable for science literacy education in higher education.